


The Thing with Feathers

by icandrawamoth



Category: Being Human (US/Canada)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Married Couple, Post-Season/Series 03, Pre-Season/Series 04, Werewolves, Yuletide, Yuletide 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 10:59:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8888296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: Nora learns to deal with her husband being in permanent wolf form.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skieswideopen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skieswideopen/gifts).



> Title from the Emily Dickinson poem "'Hope' is the thing with feathers."

Josh has been a wolf for two days.

Even slumped here staring at him through the bars of the makeshift cage she and Aidan have rigged up in an old trailer the vampire managed to procure, Nora can scarcely believe it. _He should have changed back!_ keeps running through her head, though she knows it's foolish. Of course he should have, but he didn't, and they have no idea why.

“What happened to you?” she murmurs aloud, and the wolf looks up from where he's resting, exhausted from the ordeal of getting him into the cage.

The face still startles her. She hasn't seen it in person, as a human herself, since that first time years ago. She wonders if he recognizes her now like he seemed to then. Lips pull back from huge, sharp teeth in an ugly grimace, but he doesn't have the energy to do more than growl softly before flopping back down.

Nora's heart jolts instinctively at the sound. She's afraid of him – she knows she'd be stupid not to be – but she also knows this is _Josh_. In this unusual form, might he have more awareness of himself than unusual? There's no way to know.

“We're going to figure this out,” she promises him, forcing her voice not to shake. “We'll get you out of there.”

“Nora?” She turns as Aidan comes in, holding out a sandwich. “I thought you might be hungry. No change?”

She shakes her head, staring at the food as if it's foreign. Her stomach is the last thing on her mind.

Aidan grunts in frustration. “We'll figure this out. He can't stay a wolf forever.”

“We don't know that,” Nora says softly.

* * *

It's been three weeks and still no change. Nora and Aidan have all but relocated entirely to the woods to take care of Josh. He seems to grow more restless every day, throwing himself against the silver bars and injuring himself constantly if Aidan doesn't act as bait and take him for another run to take the edge off his restless energy. Every time they leave, Nora imagines what will happen if Aidan doesn't come back, if this time he'll be just that bit too slow...

She has a tranquilizer gun, something Aidan brought her the first week when it became apparent this wasn't going away immediately. She hasn't had to use it yet, thankfully, but she knows she might someday. The thought of shooting her husband, even with an innocuous sleeping dart, eats at her.

This is so impossibly not what she imagined her marriage would be like: barely managing to become a bride before suddenly being forced into a role more like zookeeper. She'll do it for Josh, would do anything for him, like she knows he would do anything for her, but she can't deny that it's dragging on her. She's on the verge of losing her job again, as is Aidan, and what kind of life is that going to be, like this, or when Josh comes back? It's not exactly cheap to keep a werewolf fed.

She hears a commotion in the woods, Josh and Aidan coming back to the camp, and opens the trailer doors and stands aside, tranq at the ready just in case. Moments later, the two barrel into the clearing. Her heart races as she watches Aidan spring for the door, moving aside at the last moment as Josh slams inside, the vampire shutting the door behind him.

Nora runs in to try and talk Josh down, calm the every-time panic of being back in the cage. It seems to work, at least somewhat, and when he settles down, she goes back outside to join Aidan by the fire.

They sit in silence for long moments, before Nora finally says hesitantly, “The full moon is next week.”

Aidan nods.

“He might change back,” Nora presses.

“Impossible to say,” Aidan sighs. “But you know I'll be here keeping an eye on him, whatever happens.”

Nora nods and sighs deeply, sinking back in her chair. She wishes she could be here herself to look after him, rather than having to be out in the woods in her wolf form herself. “I don't know how much more of this I can take,” she says softly.

Aidan reaches over to squeeze her hand. “You're strong, Nora. You can take anything; I know that about you. But you're human. Emotionally,” he clarifies, before she can correct him. Not that she has the energy. “You need breaks. You know I'm here if you need to get away for awhile.”

She sighs again and glances toward the trailer. “I can't leave him.”

Aidan smiles sadly. “I know.”

* * *

Once the pain has faded away, and she's running through the woods, senses sharp and clear in the darkness, Nora is happier than she's been in weeks. Her muscles pump powerfully, wind flowing through her fur. Everything is pure as the wolf, untainted by worry like it is in the human mind. Like this, she can almost forget, can almost feel at peace.

* * *

Nora wakes alone, achy and exhausted in the predawn dimness, but somehow relieved. Rejuvenated. It takes long moments for her to realize Aidan is calling her name from off in the trees. She runs again, an odd combination of fear and anticipation lancing through her at his tone. When she arrives, careless of her nakedness, it's to see him standing outside the trailer, frantically gesturing inside. All he can seem to get out is “Look-!”

Heart in her throat, Nora climbs inside – and lays eyes on her husband. Her _human_  husband.

“ _Josh!”_ she cries, throwing herself to the straw-covered ground and wrapping her arms around him.

Josh hugs her back, smelling of dirt and animal but warm and solid in her arms. Nora pulls back to look at him, refusing to let go. His eyes are wide and dark, confused, set in a face more hollow than she remembers. And he's thinner, but it's unmistakably her Josh. She pulls him into her arms again. “I worried I would never see you like this again,” she whispers.

He seems lost for words, merely hugging her back tightly for long moments. Finally, he mumbles, “I missed you so much. I love you.”

“I love you so much, Josh.”

“Nora. You should come out of there now,” Aidan says from the doorway.

“Why?” she asks, refusing to let go of her husband.

“The sun is about to come up. He could change back.”

“I've already changed back, so he should have, too, if he was going to,” Nora reasons. She's not sure if it's logic or desperation.

“Just to be sure,” Aidan presses.

"Go," Josh agrees softly.

“All right.” Nora looks into Josh's eyes. “It's going to be fine. I love you,” she repeats. She pulls him in for a desperate kiss before standing and stepping back, apologizing silently as she pulls the gate closed and does up the lock.

She and Josh lock eyes, hope and fear palpable in the air. Outside, the clearing is beginning to lighten. Just when all three of them start to think it's over, it's really over, Josh cries out and doubles over.

“No!” Nora instinctively steps closer and grabs the bars, but Aidan takes her arm and pulls her away.

She clenches her fists and watches as the wolf once again replaces the man she loves. Another month of this, then. Another month of caretaking and desperation and hope. But.

“We got him back once,” she says with renewed determination. “That means we can do it again.”

 


End file.
